1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications and, more particularly, to wireless telecommunication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Over the past few years, cellular phone systems that permit packet transmission, such as 1×Evolution Voice—Data Voice (“1×EV-DV”), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (“HSDPA”), and other similar systems, have greatly increased the potential capacity of the cellular systems. However, this capacity is still limited, and cellular providers are constantly searching for new and better ways to efficiently and profitably divide up this capacity amongst the most users. There are many factors that can influence or affect how cellular providers choose to divide the available bandwidth.
First, there are a limited number of channelization/Walsh codes that are available to be distributed amongst the mobile devices in the cellular system. In addition, many of these Walsh codes are used by non-packet, legacy channels, such as the pilot channel and the paging channel. As such, one of the challenges presenting the operators of cellular systems is how to manage the allocation of the remaining Walsh codes to support the most users while maintaining a low Frame Error Rate (“FER”) (e.g., 1% FER).
Second, there is also a limited amount of transmission power available in the cellular system. All things being equal, signals (e.g., phone calls) transmitted with higher transmission power have fewer errors. Unfortunately, transmission power is not unlimited; it must be sub-divided amongst the users of the cellular system while maintaining a certain threshold quality level. As such, another challenge for the operators of cellular is maximizing the number of users that can share the available power while maintaining the quality level.
Third, cellular providers are interested in allocating bandwidth and throughput based on the Quality of Service (“QoS”) parameters for each mobile device. QoS is a protocol that enables differentiation between types of applications or services on the cellular network. These QoS parameters include delay, jitter, throughput, and error rate. To improve efficiency, modern cellular systems may assign bandwidth and throughput based on the QoS parameters for each particular application or service. For example, voice services are delay sensitive but error tolerant, whereas web browsing is delay tolerant but error sensitive. This is the case because users are willing to tolerate an occasional error in a conversation but not a long gap in the phone conversation. Conversely, consumers are willing tolerate a delay to download a web page but not errors on the web page. The particular QoS parameters may be determined by the operators of the cellular service and may vary greatly depending on the particular service provided. Efficiently managing the bandwidth and throughput to each of the mobile devices based on QoS parameters may be beneficial.
Fourth, with rapid growth of data based-services, such as wireless Internet, cellular providers are also concerned with the Grade of Service (“GoS”). GoS is a protocol that enables differentiation between different classes of users. GoS may permit the cellular provider to sell different services packages, referred to as GoS classes, at different prices. For example, a more expensive access package may provide higher download speeds, while a less expensive access plan may only provide lower download speeds. A system that can provide a variety of price/performance packages may be commercially advantageous to cellular service providers.
Fifth, modem cellular systems may take into account fairness in allocating power and codes. In an ideal system, it would be possible to satisfy the requirements of every mobile device of every user instantaneously. However, for a variety of reasons, this is not possible in reality. As such, some users may encounter delays or errors. Fairness concerns may be directed towards insuring that these errors or delays are fairly apportioned amongst all of the users of the cellular system depending on GoS class.
A system that could manage packet transmission across 1×EV-DV, HSDPA, and other packet transmission networks based on the available the factors outlined above would be advantageous.